If you can't afford the 15% to 20% tip, you shouldn't be eating out.
The people who constantly complain about poor service should also taking a long,
truthful review of what they do that attracts the disappointing service.

If a person works for a restaurant, he should be paid a fair wage for his/her
services. If the customer thinks that extra effort has been given, then that
customer should leave a tip.

The minimum wage law should apply to
everyone. Of course paying minimum wage to all workers would make it cost more
to go to a restaurant. The prices would have to rise to pay the wages, but tips
would be optional, so prices could rise by 15% to 20% without changing the
actual cost of the meal.

Until that changes, we will leave a generous
tip for good service because we know that the entire staff depends on those
tips. We've had several children who worked in restaurants who told us how
discouraging it is to work eight hours and get only $10 in tips for those ten
hours.

I have seldom left more than a 10% tip. I'm going with "Thinkin\'
Man" on this one. Restaurants should not hide the cost of meals through
"expected" behavior. Should we leave a tip for the cashier in the
grocery store? Reams used to say "we add only 10% to these prices" but
people started seeing through the ramifications of "only 10%". Imagine
if a restaurant said "we add only 18% to these prices". They would be
run out of town.

"I have seldom left more than a 10% tip. I'm going with
"Thinkin\' Man" on this one. Restaurants should not hide the cost
of meals through "expected" behavior."

You're not
hurting the restaurant here. By going out to eat, paying for your meal, and then
stiffing your server you are ONLY hurting the server. The restaurant got your
money, and that's all they care about. You're not forcing any changes
to our tipping system. All you're doing is being a cheapskate and hurting
some college student.

I have some advice: What would you do if this
server was your child?

"Should we leave a tip for the cashier in
the grocery store?"

Servers don't do more than a Reams
cashier? Are Reams cashiers paid $2.13 per hr?

"Imagine if a
restaurant said "we add only 18% to these prices". They would be run out
of town."

I have worked at several busy restaurants that added an
18 percent gratuity to tables of 6+. I never had a problem with people refusing
to pay this or not coming back. I guess only selfish people would see an 18
percent auto-gratuity as some sort of "injustice" or "gouging."

Let us get the tipped; employees don’t make minimum wage fallacy out of
the way. All tipped position make at least minimum wage. They make 2.13 per hour
plus tips. If the amount they make in tips + their hourly wage of 2.13 per hour
does not add up to the federal minimum wage the restaurant is required to make
up the difference. If the restaurant is not making up the difference the wait
staff should contact the appropriate governmental regulatory agency, or an
employment lawyer. I normally tip 20% or more however if I get awful service I
will make that less. I know the wait staff will at least get minimum wage.

I always pay the tip by credit card. If you pay tips with cash, odds
are the amount tipped will go underreported for tax purposes. Which means even
the wait staff makes the same as someone else who doesn’t get tips, the
take home pay could be much higher.

"Tipping is a scam devised by restaurateurs and the like as a means of
getting out of having to pay their own people a fair wage."

You're correct.

So are you now suggesting that the free market
doesn't necessarily resolve to make things better for the worker? That
*gasp* government intervention might be needed to make up for the shortcomings
and injustices of the free market?

Wow! What a crazy day! The free
market folks today are agreeing that the free market has failed in the
restaurant agency and that government intervention is necessary! It's
probably because they've actually had children work in this sector!

Now if only we could have a few of these folks denied health insurance
because of pre-existing conditions and they'd suddenly become huge
supporters of Obamacare!

Should we feel as good about providing tax funded social services for underpaid
Wal-Mart workers as we feel about tipping underpaid restaurant employees?Seems like the CEO's do pretty well for themselves in both of these
situations at our expense. That, lost in DC, is why it's relevant.

From the letter: "Waiters and waitresses cannot make a living off 10 percent
tips."

People can't make a living off the minimum wage,
either, and yet critics of a raise maintain that the minimum wage is already
high enough, or that there shouldn't be a minimum wage at all, but that an
employer should be allowed to pay as little as he thinks the job is worth - and
if you want higher pay, find another job.

Suppose a waitress serves
four tables an hour, that every table has a $20 bill, and that she receives a
10% ($2) tip from each. Added to her wages, that would make $10.13 an hour,
almost $3 more than the minimum wage.

If, according to the critics,
the present minimum wage is high enough for workers at a fast-food restaurant,
jobs requiring no special skill, why isn't $10 or $12 dollars an hour
adequate pay for waitresses, another job requiring no special skill?

And if people agree that $10 an hour is too little for a waitress, why do
those same people think that $7.25 an hour is enough, or more than enough, for a
fast-food worker?

If I remember correctly, when my daughters were in college and working as
servers, the IRS taxed them for 15% of the total of the sales tickets with their
server number on them. Thus, servers were being taxed for 15% whether or not
their customers left a tip.

I can't remember the last time I got a tip just for doing my job. But then
my employer pays me what my job is worth (to him).

Why don't
restaurant owners just pay their people what he thinks their work is worth (to
him)? I mean without THEM... he doesn't make very much money.

Seems like he should factor their wages into the price of the food and just
pay his employees.

To me it makes no sense for the employer to expect
his customers to pay his employees salary.

The only angle I can find
where it makes sense is IF the restaurant owner sees the waitresses as
freelancers working for the the customer (and not for him). Then it would make
sense for the customer to determine what the waitress gets paid, because they
work for him (not the restaurant). But that's kind of a stretch.

IMO they should include the full wage into the price of the meal and pay the
waitress from proceeds.

Note:Some waitresses prefer tips
instead of salary because they can earn more IF they serve a lot of tables and
work hard.